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News that oilsands recruiters have been appearing at British Columbia's junior hockey games isn't going over well with the resource sector on this side of the provincial border who are chasing the same pool of skilled workers.

B.C.'s mining, forestry and energy sectors are expecting to need as many as 10,000 people over the next 10-15 years.

Alberta companies, meanwhile, are looking to hire 21,000 workers over the same time period.

The pressure to recruit has pushed at least one oilsands company to become partners with several Western Hockey League teams in markets such as Vancouver, Kamloops, Kelowna and Prince George to broaden its search for qualified candidates.

"Really, you can't just put up a help-wanted ad or hang out a shingle; that doesn't get the results. So we looked at how we can reach out to people who might be interested in working for us and where those demographic communities are with people with the right skills," said Brad Bel-lows, a representative of MEG Energy Corp. of Calgary, which began its WHL recruitment drive in January.

The company was drawn to the league by the demographic of the audience: predominantly men between the ages of 25 and 44 years.

He said MEG buys advertising at the games and in the community, then arranges a table in the concourse, staffing it with enthusiastic employees who tempt hockey fans with offers of flexible fly-in, fly-out jobs with healthy paycheques, good benefits and comfortable work camp facilities located about 120 kilometres south of Fort McMurray.

The result has been a significant increase in applications from those areas, he said.

But Jennifer Brandle-McCall, CEO of the Prince George Chamber of Commerce, said she's worried the WHL initiative is setting a bad example for acceptable recruitment practices in B.C.

She said strong labour demand stemming from growth in the mining and forestry sectors has created a "state of crisis" within the region, including "reluctant" poaching of staff between firms.

"You'll see a mining-supply company needing welders or sheet-metal fitters and what they are doing is basically going to employees of their competitors and saying, 'We'll offer you this money or this opportunity if you come over to us.'

"You're basically taking from one to supply another, and we don't see that as being a healthy practice," she said.

Brandle-McCall said the chamber is working with economic development agencies and other stakeholders in Prince George to develop a strategy that will keep skilled workers from leaving the area.

One key recommendation is to help businesses find ways to collaborate and look at what is good for all in the longterm, she said, "because just satisfying our short-term needs will not be good for anyone."

Bellows said his company - which is looking to add 200 workers this year - has heard the concerns about cross-recruitment, but it doesn't share them.

While some of the jobs are Alberta-based, most require workers to fly in temporarily.

"These potential employees would continue to reside in where ever their home community is. They would pay their property taxes there. They would pay their provincial taxes there. They would bring their paycheque back and spend their money with family and friends," Bellows said.

"We're all Canadians. We have this labour mobility. We have common standards, particularly between Alberta and British Columbia, so to have that mobility can be good for the economies of both provinces."

The Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada last week released a study based on industry surveys that suggests a 73 per cent increase in demand for oilsands workers from about 20,000 today to 35,000 by 2021.

It adds another 6,000 employees will be needed to replace workers as they retire over the next 10 years.

In northern B.C., recruitment efforts in anticipation of several major projects scheduled to come online in the next few years are taking place at all levels: provincially, interprovincially, nationally and internationally.

Renata King, regional director of business development for the Northern Development Initiative Trust, said in an earlier interview the push is on to attract whole families to the north, as well as individual workers.

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